The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has a digital library containing thousands of photographs of plants and animals. The digital library is an interactive site that has a kidâs page with videos, animal sounds, and games.
The photo is courtesy of: http://members.multimania.nl/onager/ballista.htmlMangonelThe Mangonel is what many people think of when they think of a catapult. From the Latin word manganon meaning engine of war. The Mangonel was invented by the Romans in 400 BC. The Mangonel consists of a long wood arm with a bucket (early models used a sling) with a rope attached to the end. The arm is then pulled back (from natural 90o angle) then energy was stored in the tension of the rope and the arm. Then the bucket would be loaded.
The different types of Catapults used in the Middle Ages included: 1  The Ballista - The Ballista was similar to a Giant Crossbow and worked by using tension. 2  The Trebuchet - The massive Trebuchet consisted of a lever and a sling and was capable of hurling stones weighing 200 pounds with a range of up to about 300 yards.